My place in this world - Reena Anand

Finding my place has never been straightforward.

It's required me to hold multiple truths simultaneously - that I'm capable and struggling, thriving professionally whilst barely keeping my head above water at home, a confident advocate for others whilst navigating my own invisible battles; and more.

For years, I didn't know I was neurodivergent. I was a solicitor, then an ombudsman, handling complex cases about fairness and discrimination. I was both competent and respected yet completely exhausted.

I thought everyone else functioned with ease and so there must be deficiencies on my part - things I just didn't understand or took longer to grasp, so I kept studying and gaining further qualifications; I thought that my shortcomings aside, more qualifications and proficiency would evidence that I should be in the room and speak for me.

Looking back, I can now see that this was also part of a wider strategy to mask my social awkwardness; I was only comfortable when discussing something technical I'd researched thoroughly. I would rather spend time doing that than navigate the spontaneity of standing next to someone I knew only vaguely in the lunch queue at work, searching my mind for easy conversation topics where I wouldn’t end up telling people the history of my family lineage, when all they asked was if I had any plans that weekend.

Then I became a mother.

The greatest challenge of my life wasn't my career. It was parenting two neurodivergent children whilst being neurodivergent myself, from a South Asian background, in a system that doesn't understand either. I left my job because I couldn't do both - not because I wasn't capable, but because the systems around me weren't designed to see all of me, making navigation so painful. There was no space for a working mother who needed to chase NHS appointments, who understood her son's needs differently than the school did, who was navigating racism and ableism simultaneously. The workplace couldn't hold that complexity and so, I walked away.

My place in this world became clearer when I decided to build something for people like me. When I started my consultancy, I wasn't just running a business; I was creating space for the conversations that nobody else was having. Conversations about what it means to be neurodivergent and from the Global Majority, about parenting neurodivergent children whilst being neurodivergent yourself, about how the systems that are supposed to support us, so often exclude us further.

I've found my place as an advocate and evidence-led practitioner because I stopped pretending that my lived experience was separate from my professional expertise; they're all part of the same person. My 16 years in law and ombudsman work taught me about systemic barriers. My experience as a mother taught me what those barriers feel like when you’re nose-to-nose with them. And then my identity as a neurodivergent woman of colour taught me that these barriers compound in ways that most people don't see.

I want the reader to know that if it feels hard, it’s because it is. It’s not because you're not trying hard enough, or overthinking it, or making it worse than it is. It's hard because the support available doesn't account for your full identity and life experience. Your experience may look completely different from others’ because of where you come from, what your background is, what your cultural values are, what your intersecting identities are - but it’s just as valid. You're navigating a complexity that the world seems to still be struggling to hold.

Finding your place in the world doesn't mean fitting in. Rather, for me, it’s about finding people, spaces and work that recognise all of who you are - your neurodivergence, your cultural identity, your lived experience, your invisible struggles and your invisible strengths. Why be acceptable when we can be astounding?!

My place in this world is here, in the conversations and advocacy work that insists your whole self matters. Not despite your neurodivergence, background, or complexity of your life, but because these are integral to who you are and what you bring to the world.

Thank you to Reena for sharing her personal journay and for her time given so generously at the GAIN and LNN (Legal Neurodiversity Network) Session in May 2026.